What is the FBI's ‘Operation Restore Justice’? Kentucky man sentenced for forcing minor to send him sexually explicit images online

A man from Kentucky convicted of trying to get a minor to send him sexually explicit images online was sentenced by a federal judge to 180 months in prison. Following his conviction, the man, identified as Finley Wooton, 33, of Hyden, was sentenced after pleading guilty to attempted production of child pornography, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky said in a release on January 30, 2026.

The Attorney's Office revealed that Wooton admitted in his plea agreement that on April 10, 2023, he engaged in a Facebook Messenger conversation with a minor victim.

“During the conversation, Wooton sent sexually explicit images and asked for sexually explicit images in return,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in the statement. “By doing so, Wooton used Facebook Messenger to attempt to persuade the minor victim to produce child pornography.”


“Under federal law, Wooton must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence. Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for 10 years,” the release said.

Paul McCaffrey, First Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Olivia Olson, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Division; and Col. Phillip J. Burnett, Jr., Commissioner of the Kentucky State Police jointly announced the conviction.

Wooton was charged as part of FBI’s ‘Operation Restore Justice’

Wooton was one of a number of suspects who were arrested and charged as part of the FBI’s "Operation Restore Justice.” It was a five-day nationwide initiative last spring to identify, track, and arrest child sex predators across the country, the FBI said in an announcement in May 2025.

The initiative led the FBI to arrest 205 suspects and rescue 115 children across the country, the FBI said.